Christy Turlington Has Your Mother's Day Gift Idea

First, I learned that Mother's Day was started by a really spirited lady named Anna Jarvis, who, while teaching Sunday school, said, "I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother's day. There are many days for men, but none for mothers." It just didn't sit well with her that women weren't getting recognized for all the good they did in the world, and she wanted to do something about it.

And here I thought the holiday was invented by the macaroni-necklace industrial complex.

I suspect Anna's vision didn't include lots of commercial opportunities, though last Mother's Day, American's spent more than 1.8B (that's a "B" people, as in billion) dollars on flowers alone. I can't imagine this year will be much different. But here's the deal: Because of a lack of adequate health care, becoming a mother is extremely dangerous in much of the world. And while you're unlikely to meet a girl who likes her mother (or a table full of tulips) as much as I do, I'm taking this year's flower fund and donating the money to make childbirth safer for so many women. But because my mother own is so indescribably wonderful and deserving of treats (we're talking about a woman who emails weekly updates about the things our dog has swiped from the dining room table—sometimes even with photographic evidence— so this is serious), I'm also going to send her a little shout-out with Give a Thought, which is EMC's way for us to publicly proclaim our love for the mother figures in our lives.

I'm not certain that I'll actually be able to avoid spoiling my mom today (read: there is no possible way that I will be able to avoid spoiling my mother today), but this year I'll be doing it a little more consciously, and with a little more respect for those mothers all over the world, making it work with so much less than we have.